Laxmen Set To Tackle Tough Schedule

By Andy Hutchison

If the Newtown High School boys’ lacrosse team endures some tough losses this spring, don’t be surprised.

Long Island-based Sachem East and St John The Baptist, along with New York’s Eastchester High School and local nonconference foe and defending state champion Fairfield Prep, are all on the schedule.

NHS Coach Brian Micena does not set up the schedule to boost his team’s confidence in the form of easy wins. Micena wants his team to take away playoff-like experiences from some of the regular season games. He believes these tough tests stand to make his team better and prepare the players for the postseason when it rolls around.

“My goal is that we are competitive in all of these games,” Micena said.

Sachem East Coach Rob Murphy was Micena’s high school coach on Long Island and Bob Staak, Minena’s college roommate at Sacred Heart University, coaches St John.

The Nighthawks were tested by out-of-conference teams Conard and Prep last year. Those were the only two teams not in the South-West Conference to beat the Hawks.

The lone SWC team to defeat Newtown a year ago was New Fairfield, which topped the Hawks both in the regular campaign and again in the SWC title game.

Newtown ended up 15-5 overall after losing to Prep in the quarterfinal round of the Class L state tourney.

Gone are graduate Will Mahoney and his brother, senior Ben Mahoney, whose family moved to California. Twins Connor and Brendan Martin, Zack Varga and Max Beitel (one of the team’s goaltenders a year ago) all graduated and will leave significant voids.

The captains this year are Jacob Dauz, Christian Beitel (the team’s leading scorer a year ago) and Kyle McNamara. Other key players back in the fold are Rob O’Donnell, Kevin Canavan (among the top scorers in the state), Jaime Vavrek, John Grimaldi and Clarence Chung (goaltender).

The Nighthawks have plenty of talent in the lineup. Beitel was recruited and will play at Dickinson College next year. Cheung is waiting to officially hear from the Naval Academy, Micena said. Dauz was recruited to play at Providence and McNamara will play at the University of Delaware next year. Vavrek is deciding between Endicott and Ohio Wesleyan, Micena said. Grimaldi and Canavan have been recruited by Division III schools and have not yet decided where they will go.

Micena believes his team will be particularly deep at midfield. With high-scorers, including Beitel, back, the Hawks appear to be in good shape for another strong run.

Newtown was scheduled to begin the campaign Thursday (after The Bee went to press) and will visit Sachem East on Saturday.

A rematch of last year’s South-West Conference finale with New Fairfield will be at Blue and Gold Stadium on May 13 and Prep will visit (Treadwell Park) on May 14.